Ms Ferguson tried to salvage the interview, saying there were questions he was prepared to answer earlier in the week, but Mr Palmer took out his earpiece and exited the studio.

“I’m not answering any more for you so goodbye, we’ll see you later,” he said.

Ms Ferguson had asked the Palmer United Party leader that a deed that had recently been made public seemed to show that Mr Palmer had taken money set aside for a port venture and given it to a company associated with him, Media Circus Network.

The deed is at the centre of a Federal Court matter which is looking at whether Mr Palmer may have used funds set aside for the development of a port at Cape Preston in WA for his federal election campaign.

But Mr Palmer rejected the accusation, saying “It’s a lie, everything you’ve just said is not true.”

Mr Palmer was unfazed by earlier questions about his party’s last-minute tactics in the upper house to stop the carbon tax repeal legislation being passed yesterday.

The mining magnate had flown out of Canberra for a skiing holiday in Queenstown yesterday before the interview.